Postage stamps and postal history of Ruanda-Urundi

The African territories of Ruanda and Urundi came under Belgian control as Ruanda-Urundi after they were seized from Germany during World War I in 1916. They had previously formed part of German East Africa.

Stamp overprinted for the Belgian Occupied German East Africa Territories, 1916.
Belgian Congo stamp overprinted "Ruanda Urundi" , 1924.

The territory was under Belgian military occupation from 1916 to 1922, and stamps of Belgian Congo were overprinted for the occupied territories with bilingual inscriptions "EST AFRICAIN ALLEMAND OCCUPATION BELGE / DUITSCH OOST AFRIKA BELGISCHE BEZETTING" in French and Dutch.

Ruanda-Urundi later became a Belgian-controlled Class B Mandate under the League of Nations from 1922 to 1945. Stamps of Belgian Congo overprinted "Ruanda-Urundi" were issued in 1924. The first series of definitive stamps featuring local themes was issued in 1931.

The 1931 series.
The 1931 series.

The territory became a Trust Territory of the United Nations in 1946. Ruanda-Urundi gained independence in 1962 as two separate countries of Rwanda and Burundi.[1][2]

See also

References
  1. Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue: North East Africa. London: Stanley Gibbons, 2013, pp. 257-261. ISBN 9780852598764
  2. https://web.archive.org/web/20170805000510/http://www.stampworldhistory.com/country-profiles-2/africa/ruanda-urundi/ Retrieved 12 August 2018.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.